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Podcast: Beyond the Headlines
Episode: Is the Turkish President meddling in football?
Description: Like millions in Turkey, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is a football fan. Before he became the country’s leader, he was a semi-professional player.
He publicly backs a small Istanbul team - which won the country’s super league in 2020 - and was the best man at the wedding of Mesut Özil, the German national team footballer who is of Turkish heritage. Mr Erdogan’s love of the game and his close ties to certain clubs and the national team is wrankling with some fans who say the president is politicising a once national-unifier. As the country competes in the...